


Rachel Dunne-Schoolteacher

by Wendymypooh



Series: TYR-A Day In The Life Series [10]
Category: The Young Riders (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-02 08:13:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17260715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wendymypooh/pseuds/Wendymypooh
Summary: Rachel finds being the new schoolteacher a rewarding challenge.





	Rachel Dunne-Schoolteacher

"Good Morning." Rachel Dunne welcomed her schoolchildren with a warm smile as they filed past her up the steps and entered the schoolhouse.   
"Morning." They chorused together.   
When Teaspoon Hunter suggested she be Rock Creek's new school teacher, she thought he was crazy. She was a woman with a sordid past who was looked condescendingly upon by most of the women in town.   
No way were they going to let her teach their children. She'd been right, too. But Teaspoon had persuaded the town council to give her a chance. They'd reluctantly agreed.   
Two months had passed since then and Rachel found that some of the mothers had come over to her side. Their children were learning under her tutelage and seemed to be enjoying going to school. 

As the stragglers entered the schoolhouse, Rachel hurried up the steps and entered. She closed the doors behind her and walked up the aisle of desks to the front of the classroom.   
She clapped her hands and gestured for the children to take their seats. There was a flurry of movements as the children hung up their coats and shawls, stored their lunch pails, and took their assigned seats. 

"Please open your readers to page ten. I want you to read for ten minutes. Then I will call you up one by one to recite what you have read." 

There were a couple of groans at her words, but she flashed a stern look at the class and the groans dissipated. Readers were taken out and the room fell silent as students followed her instructions. 

Rachel spent the ten minutes taking attendance, studying the list of lessons she'd made, and jotting down items she needed to pick up at Tompkins Mercantile for that evening's supper.   
"Timmy Walker." She called out when the ten minutes were up. 

Little Timmy Walker was one of her newest students, as well as the youngest. He was only now able to put letters together to make words. 

He approached her hesitantly, his bottom lip trembling. "I don't know all the words." 

"That's all right," Rachel assured him. "We'll work on the ones you don't know yet." 

"All right." 

Timmy smiled at her. Rachel's heart warmed at seeing it. 

"Let's begin." 

"A cat ran." Timmy read hesitantly. "A cat ran in the barn. A dog ran…" 

The next hour passed as Rachel listened to her students' recitations before they moved onto the next subject. Some subjects were harder than others for some of her students to catch onto, and it was those times when Rachel could very easily understand why some teachers gave up on continuing to teach those particular students. 

Not Rachel. She took the skills she'd learned wrangling six Pony Express riders with different personalities and tempers and applied them to those students who had more difficulty learning who were troublesome by nature. 

While she would never be considered a proper schoolteacher, she'd proven she was an effective one. Her new students were learning, and that alone was rewarding enough for Rachel.


End file.
